Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Site Moves

The Belmont Club will be moving on Monday, June 23 to Pajamas Express, a development which I hope will have several advantages. First, readers will be a little closer, in terms of clicks, to some of the most distinguished names on the blogosphere: Victor Davis Hanson, Richard Miniter, Roger Kimball, Bill Bradley, Ron Rosenbaum, Phillis Chester, Flemming Rose, Claudia Rosett, Michael Ledeen and Ron Silver. Equally compelling for me was the chance at having more control over the site, something that is a little hard to do with Blogger, and the opportunity to use the plug-ins and features available in Wordpress.

I know some firewalls exclude Blogger sites, so access for some readers may improve. The Blogger RSS feeds have also been the subject of some complaint. With the change in platform, those difficulties may be solved.

Inevitably there will some inconvenience associated with the move. There's the hassle of moving bookmarks. I'll provide a link at the top of the old page for those who can't be bothered. It's not without its headaches for me, having grown familiar with the Blogger interface, and it's like an old shoe you don't want to put away. The little widgets, the linkroll, traffic counter, blogroll, etc all have to be recast. But ultimately the move will be worth the effort.

All the archives will remain where they are. However, on the day of the move I'll lock down this site to disable the posting of additional comments, otherwise the trolls and spammers will move into the comments section.

24 Comments:

I'm agin it. I found that when Captain's Quarters moved to Hot Air, I lost interest. It became much more over-run by the world, more like a newspaper's letters to the editors page than a place where a large percentage of people were listenable-to.

I also lost the feeling that I was listening directly to the person responsible for writing Captain's Quarters, and it became more like reading an anonymous AP column.

However, if it makes it easier for you, lead on McDuff. I'll follow, at least for the nonce.

It's a different arrangment. I won't be employed by Pajamas Media. It will simply be hosting the Belmont Club. What they will get from it is whatever traffic can be generated. Victor Davis Hanson or Ron Silver don't write for the site directly. Their blogs are simply hosted on it, for much the same reasons.

How I miss Den Beste! Oh well. I hope this change will be advantageous, but it worries me. I've finally gotten to the point where I know what to expect from all your commenters, so maybe new ones will take me out of my comfort zone. Good luck and hope for the best.

I am in agreement with Nahncee in that once CQ moved I found it less and less interesting and harder to find. Not the quality of the writing but merely in it being lost in the shuffle of some good and some plainly awful writings. And I tend to prefer that defense/military related sites be separate from sites that are more political and cultural in nature. I'm not sure the neighborhood is improved by moving into an area where "gotcha" is a motivation.

There's no change in the money, which on this site come from ad revenues and donations. I'm sure most bloggers out there know that it's not possible to make a living blogging unless your traffic is really, really high.

The real upside to blogging is as a networking tool. You meet people that would be inaccessible in the ordinary course of life. Again, that doesn't translate into income but it is a good in itself.

However, the ultimate reason for writing is as an exercise in thinking things through with a lot of people watching. It is very, very easy to make a jackass of yourself in front of thousands of readers.

Some people actually make jackasses of themselves on purpose, I think, if they find a demand for it. The most corrupting influence in writing is to find yourself in demand as a buffoon and then proceed to fill it. Like Pagliaccio.

The best situation is to have some sort of day job, or non-writing interest, so that you don't have to sing for your supper exclusively.

I am sorry if I left the impression that I thought the move had a financial motivation. That was not my intent at all. If there is the possibility of increased reward then that is certainly a point in favor of a move if all other things being equal. But if not then the risk of being lost in a scrum seems likely without many benefits.

I agree with your readers comments in regards to Ed Morrisey. I always enjoyed reading Captain's Quarters. He always posted very early in the morning, and was my first read for the day. Since moving to Pajamas, I "feel" that it as not been the same. It seems that I have lost him in the noise ... or ... I guess I am a creature of habit.

I agree with those who think that CQ was better by itself than as part of Hot Air, mainly because you can't follow the thread of Morrissey's commentary by itself. PJM on the other hand allows you to review one pundit at a time instead of just perusing the main page.

I have never posted to "The Club" before, but must chime in for what it's worth. I agree that CQ got lost in the crowd at HotAir. I don't read him any more, or, rather, very rarely since he moved. Belmont Club is, to me, a labor of love by someone who is painting with words, for all to see. (and comment on). I recognize many of the long-time commenters, and REALLY appreciate their wit and wisdom. I can only hope that the 'water from a fire hydrant' of Pajamas Express does not drown Belmont Clubs voice. Mabuhay

Actually, the comments above have define my sense of unease at the news you're moving. I want the New You to be easily accessible and bookmarked, and I want to be able to follow the thread without a lot of scroling around. I'd like all the B Club stuff in one place.

What InstaPundit has done is good in that you can read him either at PM, or his home page remains as-is and you can just read it without wading through all the other PM stuff.

What Captain's Corner did is the kiss of death, so please don't do it that way.

Throwing out your contemplative pieces to concentrate on Japanese anime is also a not-good thing to do, so please try not to.

Does this new flexibility mean you'll be more easily able to ban people? :-)